24 Weeks!

To all my faithful blog readers: I am so sorry that I missed 23 weeks! I figured no one would really notice. We were off gallivanting around our nations capital and hanging out with family and friends, which threw my schedule totally off whack, and I just didn’t get around to doing a chalkboard and taking pictures. I’m pretty sure most of you don’t mind, but I figured I should at least apologize to my mother, who hangs on every word about this child’s growth and development (and could you blame her, really?)

So, without further ado….24 weeks…Otherwise known as, holycowNOWImreallypregnant.

Is it just my short stature, or am I slouching really bad? I need to work on that!

How Far Along:
24 weeks!

Size of Baby:
An ear of corn! That sounds HUGE to me!

Total Weight Gain:
17 pds. And it’s ALL showing. Also funny…if you take the decimal out of baby’s weight, you get my approximate weight (at least the last time I was actually brave enough to step on the scale).

Also of note: My scale at home and the doctors office scale are saying two different things (about 3 pds off). Plus, I didn’t get weighed at the drs until 10 weeks, while I started weighing myself at home at 5 weeks. Sooooo, I may or may not just throw those numbers together and make a guesstimate about my weight gain.

Stretch Marks:
None that I have noticed yet!

Wedding Rings: Completely on, still a little lose. I haven’t noticed any swelling yet (besides the general swelling of my entire body haha!)

Maternity Clothes:
Yes! Spring cleaning involved sorting my clothes into three piles: 1. Will fit for pregnancy, 2. Keep, but store away cause there is no way I can fit into that with a baby belly, 3. Get rid of

Gender:
Precious baby girl! And no, we are NOT going all-out pink. The baby’s room and all the gear that we buy is going to remain very gender neutral, so it can be used for future children as well. (aqua, grey and yellow, if you are wondering).

Movement:
All the time. It’s even visible from the OUTSIDE, which is the craziest thing! Its like I have a little alien inside me. I can also now feel where she is in the uterus (right, left, up or down). And I THINK I may be able to tell when she is rolling, kicking or punching. This girl is truly going to be a black belt like her Daddy. I always tell him she is in there practicing her kata’s, and when he sees/feels her movement, he announces which Tae Kwon Do move it was (round kick, side kick, etc). It’s pretty adorable! =)

Sleep:
I can still OCCASIONALLY sleep through the night, but I usually just wake up once to go to the bathroom. Our cats also have this annoying habit of waking up and PURRING as loud and as long as they can. I guess they are THRILLED we are all warm and cozy, and I think they’ve figured out that when the purr, I wake up, when I wake up, I get up, and when I get up, I feed them. Hmmmm.

What I miss:
Being able to do anything. I realized this past weekend that I need to slow down in order to take care of my body and this precious little one. That is a hard thing for me grasp, and apparently it runs in the family, as my Grandma is legend for moving furniture downstairs all by herself, and my Mom, Aunt and cousin all apparently had to slow down after over-doing it during their previous pregnancies.

Food Cravings:
I’ll eat anything, really. Chick-Fil-A milkshakes really hit the spot, and I have a feeling that will only get worse as the weather gets warmer!

Food Aversions:
Still just the stuff that I ate hardcore first trimester, so not too much, and as long as I don’t smell it, I can eat it all just fine.

Symptoms: This week, pregnancy symptoms hit full-force. I don’t know if baby is going through another growth spurt or what, but I’ve struggled with a lot of pain and discomfort. For the first time this week, I had heartburn (mild, but still). I also tore my round ligament, making me so much more aware of how hard my body is working to hold this little one up. My belly has really popped, making it obvious to strangers and to myself that I am actually pregnant. This is first week that I didn’t really want to be pregnant. I know that I have a LONG ways to go, and that it will be much worse than this down the line, but that’s just so discouraging to me that I’m already feeling the discomfort and knowing that I have so long to go!

Best Comment This Week: *new edition! I’m starting to get the best comments from people, and I figured recording it here would be an awesome way to keep track/share some of the compliments AND off-the-wall comments I get about my pregnancy!*

The first one is from one of my students, who really has no filter. He goes, “WOAH, guys!! Ms. Suzanne is getting fatter and fatter every day!!”

Yes, thank you. Except normally we say something like ‘bigger and bigger’.

The second one is from a babysitter who came to pick up a student. The conversation went like this:

Her: “Wow, when are you DUE?”

Me: August

Her: Oh. Well, well, well….You are super CUTE! Your bump is ADORABLE, and I’m sure that you will be one of those cute pregnant ladies when you get bigger, too!

good cover, lady, good cover.

Best Moment This Week: It’s a 4 day week! I get my first official day off from work since Jan 1! Woot Woot!

Worst Moment This Week: Tearing my round ligament. You can read the whole story here. Thankfully, it seems to have healed really well this week, although I still haven’t resumed exercising or anything that involves twisting, turning and lifting.

Also…snow. Yeah, like an inch of it. On the ground. On Saturday it was 75 and gloriously sunny, and on Monday night it dropped well below the 30s and dumped snow. The weather is still recovering.

Exercise This Week: Well, I was doing AWESOME until I tore my round ligament. I was working my abs by doing planks, I was doing almost 150 squats a day, and walking/running/biking almost every day as well. Then, when I tore the round ligament, I was pretty much banned from all of those. Hopefully I can get back into it SLOWLY (don’t worry, Mom!) and continue to keep myself in shape.

What I’m Looking Forward To:
Maxi Dresses, Maternity Photos, SUMMER and baby showers!

P.S. I should totally mention that I can’t always take credit for the chalkboard. I usually do it, then Theo comes along and edits it. He also usually does all the drawings on the chalkboard. For this one, I drew the stalk of corn and the ear of corn, and when Theo saw it he laughed out loud and re-did it, which is good…cause I thought it looked pretty bad, too. I am truly thankful for a detail-oriented, good-at-drawing husband!